Burri Andrea, Hilpert Peter, Spector Timothy
Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
J Sex Med. 2015 Jun;12(6):1427-35. doi: 10.1111/jsm.12893. Epub 2015 May 4.
Aspects of women's sexual functioning that have received relatively little attention are its stability and how changes in the different sexual response domains influence each other over time.
The aim of this study was to describe the changes and to evaluate the stability of self-reported sexual functioning over a 4-year period in a population sample of British women.
A 4-year follow-up study on N = 507 women, including 178 pre- and 329 postmenopausal women, was conducted. The validated Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) was applied.
A multigroup path analytical model was used to examine autoregressive effects (the effect of a domain on itself at a later point in time) and cross-lag effects (one variable affecting another variable at a later point in time) across all FSFI domains of sexual functioning between pre- and postmenopausal women.
Overall, the proportion of postmenopausal women suffering from a sexual dysfunction at measurement point 1 (T1) was higher compared with premenopausal women (pre: 34.3% vs. post: 14.5%). However, both groups showed a comparable number of women developing a sexual problem (pre: 22.2% vs. post: 23.2%) or improving their sexual functioning (7.4% vs. 7.6%) after the 4 years. Furthermore, path model analyses revealed that each domain at T1 significantly predicted its level 4 years later (βs ranging from 0.33 for arousal to 0.57 for lubrication), with the exception of sexual satisfaction. In terms of cross-lag effects, the changes in all domains except for pain were predicted either by levels of desire, arousal, or orgasm at T1 (βs ranging from 0.18 to 0.36) in both groups.
Women's sexual functioning was moderately stable across the 4 years. The main predictors of changes in sexual functioning and satisfaction were desire and arousal, highlighting their role as possible key players in women's sexual health.
女性性功能中相对较少受到关注的方面是其稳定性，以及不同性反应领域的变化如何随时间相互影响。
本研究的目的是描述英国女性人群样本在4年期间自我报告的性功能变化并评估其稳定性。
对N = 507名女性进行了为期4年的随访研究，其中包括178名绝经前女性和329名绝经后女性。应用了经过验证的女性性功能指数（FSFI）。
采用多组路径分析模型，研究绝经前和绝经后女性性功能的所有FSFI领域之间的自回归效应（一个领域在稍后时间点对自身的影响）和交叉滞后效应（一个变量在稍后时间点对另一个变量的影响）。
总体而言，在测量点1（T1）时，绝经后女性性功能障碍的比例高于绝经前女性（绝经前：34.3% 对绝经后：14.5%）。然而，两组中出现性功能问题（绝经前：22.2% 对绝经后：23.2%）或性功能改善（7.4% 对 7.6%）的女性数量相当。此外，路径模型分析显示，除性满意度外，T1时的每个领域都能显著预测其4年后的水平（β值范围从性唤起的0.33到润滑的0.57）。在交叉滞后效应方面，两组中除疼痛外的所有领域的变化均由T1时的性欲、性唤起或性高潮水平预测（β值范围从0.18到0.36）。
女性性功能在4年期间具有中等稳定性。性功能和满意度变化的主要预测因素是性欲和性唤起，突出了它们在女性性健康中可能作为关键因素的作用。
